JD Vance returns to ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ steel plant as Republicans sweat crucial Ohio races

Vice President JD Vance will return to his Ohio hometown Friday to campaign for Republicans at the steel plant where his grandfather worked for nearly four decades, as the GOP fights to hold key offices in a state that has shifted firmly to the right.

Vance is scheduled to speak at Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works, formerly known as Armco Steel, where his grandfather James Vance worked for nearly 40 years.

The vice president has increasingly leaned on his Rust Belt roots while promoting the Trump administration’s manufacturing and economic policies and campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Friday’s appearance is expected to be part of an expanding travel schedule of political events and fundraisers, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

For Vance, the Middletown stop also carries a deeply personal connection.

“It’s personally very meaningful,” Vance said Thursday on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.”

He argued that “plants like this wouldn’t exist were it not for some of the Trump administration’s economic policies.”

Vance will be joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He also said he plans to visit some Cincinnati chili restaurants during the trip.

The steel plant featured prominently in Vance’s bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” in which he portrayed it as an economic lifeline that helped propel his grandparents from Kentucky into the American middle class.

Vance wrote that his grandfather, whom he called Papaw, would proudly point to older Ford and Chevrolet vehicles and boast that his company had produced their steel.

Vance’s portrayal of Middletown has not always been warmly received. He wrote that children called the city “Middletucky” because of the large number of Kentucky transplants and described problems including drug addiction, poor dental health and troubled family lives.

But his political support there has been strong. President Donald Trump and Vance won about 62% of the vote in Middletown’s precincts in 2024. Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, and his sister still live in the city.

The homecoming comes as Republicans face competitive races in Ohio despite the state’s dramatic shift toward the GOP during the Trump era.

Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill Vance’s former Senate seat, is running against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his reelection campaign to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.

Data centers have emerged as an issue in that campaign. Brown has aired advertisements attacking Husted over their expansion, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo this week that voter backlash over data centers has left Husted vulnerable.

Republicans are also defending the governor’s office. Vivek Ramaswamy, a Vance ally, is facing Democrat Amy Acton. Democrats have not won an Ohio gubernatorial election in two decades.

Friday’s appearance will be Vance’s first public visit since the birth of his fourth child in July.

His political travel will continue Monday when he visits Brewer, Maine, where former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is running against Democrat Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, in a competitive House district.